Designing Teaching Strategies: An Applied Behavior Analysis Systems Approach

357 Pages·2002·20.17 MB·English

by  R. Douglas Greer

ecaferP
Teaching is the key. When teaching is treated sa an art, good teaching is an
accident. When teaching is treated sa a science, good teaching can be repli~
cated across many professionals in a reliable fashion. The research from the
existing corpus of applied behavior analysis, and 20 years of applications of
teaching sa a strategic ecneics in our demonstration schools, clearly shows that
the advancement of teachers in the components of what we term teaching sa a
strategic ecneics determines the rate of student progress.
Over the past decade, we have researched and identified procedures that
provide a system for teaching teachers, parents, supervisors, and graduate
students in psychology and education the repertoires of teaching and the
supervision of teachers sa a science. eW have developed schools in which
students make remarkable progress because all their teachers and supervisors
apply the science of pedagogy to all their students. These schools are centers
in four different countries. They are schools that work for all children, especially
for those who are left behind in most schools. A comprehensive description of
this systems science of schooling is available for the first time in this book.
Designing Teaching Strategies: A Behavioral Systems Approach introduces new and
advanced applications of applied behavior analysis that incorporates over 56
years of research in behavior analysis with the extensive set of new practices
associated with a behavioral systems science of schooling. In a manner of
speaking, it is a systems science for providing superior instructionminstruction
that has worked for more than a decade across several demonstration schools
for children who are difficult to teach. Our new pedagogy and schooling
practices provide the critical measurement of learn units that predict student
outcomes along with supervisory and instructional effectiveness and the ana~
lytic, instructional, supervisory, and organizational practices for developing
and maintaining instruction that can teach all students. eW also introduce
cost-benefit measures of instruction.
The reader will need to be versed in the basic procedures of applied behaw
ior analysis. The book is an advanced text that builds on the coverage of
introductory and intermediate texts. The content addresses the complexity
XV
xvi ecaferP
of building educational systems that work for all learners with the necessary
levels of scientific complexity required to provide superior and accountable
education. Both graduate students and scholars of teaching and behavior
analysis, sa well sa those in other areas devoted to behavior change, will find
a thorough treatment of the following procedures and benefits:
• A comprehensive and system~wide ecneics of teaching a postmodern-
postmodern unabashedly scientific approach;
• Tested procedures that result in four to seven times more learning for all
students;
• Tested procedures for supervisors to esu with srehcaet that result in significant
student learning;
• Tested procedures for providing the highest accountability;
• A systems approach for schooling problems that provide solutions rather
than blame;
• Parent-approved and detseuqer~.tnerap educational ;secitcarp
• Means for psychologists to work with teachers and students to evlos
behavior and learning problems;
• A comprehensive systems ecneics of schooling;
• An advanced and sophisticated ecneics of pedagogy and curriculum design;
• Students who are not being served with traditional education meeting or
gnideecxe eht performance of their more fortunate ;sreep
• Supervisors mentoring teachers and therapists ot provide ecneics~.eh4.fo..etats
instruction;
• Parent education procedures creating a setting for parents, educators, and
therapists ot work together in the best interests of the student;
• Teachers and supervisors measuring sa they teach produce significantly
better semoctuo for students;
• Systemic solutions to instructional and behavioral problems involving
teachers, parents, and supervisors provide means to pursue problems ot their
solution;
• All tactics of behavior analysis are incorporated to analyze and determine
tif~-tseb tactics for students and clients; and
• A functional behavior selection treatment of curriculum to develop true
functional repertoires of all aspects of curricula.
A science of teaching, sa opposed to an art of teaching, can provide an
educational system that treats the students and the parents sa the clients.
Designing... describes how teachers can use measurably evitceffe nevird~.renrael
moorssalc instruction that results in four to seven times more learning over control
conditions. Teachers and teachers of teachers learn research-based protocols on
how to isolate instructional problems and apply over 200 research~based
tactics to their solution, regardless of the learning problem. Psychologists
and educators will find procedures that allow them to get to the real roots of
aberrant behavior in the classroom using a systems approach that draws on all of the
ecaferP XVll oo
players in the student's world--teachers, parents, supervisors, administrators,
and professors in universities.
At a time when the demand for behavior analytic teachers and therapists
exceeds the supply, Designing... provides a blueprint to train and ensure quality
applications of behavior analysis in education and child therapy settings. Equally import-
ant, Designing... describes how to develop curricula based on behavior selec-
tion that result in functional learning outcomes rather than the common
practice of teaching the structure of knowledge (i.e., "inert knowledge").
These curricula design protocols provide the means ot teach national and state
standards such that students learn meaningful repertoires for problem solving, evitceffe
communication, cimedaca literacy, and creating an enlarged community of interests. The
curriculum design and pedagogical science presented herein allows the educa-
tor to teach students to function effectively in the 21st century.
A reporter for ehT Irish semiT recently described his impression on first visiting
a school in Ireland that incorporates all of the features described in this text.
dehcreP no eht sloping hills behind ytisrevinU egelloC kroC si neehsalG National .loohcS
nO the outside it looks like na ordinary school but no the inside ni the SABAC
smoorssalC that era part of the Cork SABAC loohcS something yranidroartxe si taking
place... ehT charts no eht wall show woh a group of ... children with ereves cimedaca
dna social syaled era gnikam elbakramer ssergorp sa part of a pilot education margorp
... It si a tailor-made system of learning which responds to children's strengths dna
...sessenkaew With applied roivaheb sisylana the gninrael ssecorp si dedeeps up and in
many cases.., children with ereves cimedaca dna social syaled era able to catch up
with their sreep lraC( ,nairB'O ehT hsirI ,semiT yluJ ,12 ,2002 .p .)7
The objective of our text is to provide other professionals with the where-
withal to provide the same "remarkable progress" for their students.
stnemgdelwonkcA
I acknowledge the assistance of Dolleen~Day Keohane, Pamela Osnes, and
Marla Brassard for their careful and gentle proofing of this manuscript. Their
insightful comments and encouragement was instrumental in its completion.
! also thank Gary Phye for championing the book. In addition, I thank the
several generations of my graduate students who labored through earlier
draftsmtheir responses drove revisions and additions. Finally, I thank the
hundreds of students in our CABAS Schools in the USA, Ireland, England,
and Italy whose daily data taught su the systems approach that has served
su all os well. Yes, the student does know best.
xix
CHAPTER
Teaching as Applied
Behavior Analysis:
A Professional Difference
TERMS AND CONSTRUCTS TO MASTER
• Natural selection extended to • Functional relationship between
behavior analysis teaching and student learning
• Teaching sa applied behavior
• Nine characteristics of teaching sa
analysismThe professional difference
applied behavior analysis
• Prescientific and postscientific
perspectives on student learning • Teaching expertise and financial
problems rewards
• Pedagogy
• Science of the behavior of the
• Teaching sa environmental design individual
TOPICS
A Definition of Teaching and Pedagogy
Teaching sa a Scientifically Based Profession
Characteristic Practices of Teaching sa Applied Behavior Analysis
A DEFINITION OF TEACHING AND PEDAGOGY
ygogadeP is the traditional term for the study of the methods of teaching. While
the word ygogadep is seldom used in descriptions of the methods of teaching in
4
.1 Teaching as Applied Behavior Analysis, A Professional Difference
normative educational courses anymore, it is an accurate term and the actiw
ities of pedagogy are critical to expert teaching. Pedagogy is that component of
teaching that comprises interventions used by a teacher to bring about student
learningmin short, interventions that occasion learning. Our definition of peda-
gogy will incorporate what we know about the behavior of the individual with
particular relevance to how the individual learns. In our enlarged definition,
pedagogy refers to the instructional operations performed by a teacher or by
an automated teaching device that result in a student learning a behavior, a
response class, and a repertoire. The learning must have occurred sa a function
(that is sa a "cause") ,fo or a correlate ,fo the instructional operations performed
by the teacher. The teaching operations were either sufficient or necessary to
the learning. Without them the student would not learn.
eW use the term "normative" sa a generic term for the prevalent view in
education that "teaching si an art." eW do not wish to characterize that view in
a pejorative manner. Rather, we use it to help the reader differentiate ~erp
scientific approaches to pedagogy with a thoroughgoing scientific approach
found in teaching sa applied behavior analysis. In the practice of normative
education eclecticism is considered desirable. Because normative education si
so eclectic in nature it is difficult if not impossible to characterize the intellec~
tual beliefs or epistemology associated with it. However, it is probably accurate
to say that normative approaches to education are not tied to a view of
teaching sa a thoroughgoing strategic science. Hence we use the terms pre-
scientific pedagogy and normative education interchangeably.
In our view, the presentation of material, sa in a lecture or reading ~ngissa
ment, si not an instance of pedagogy, any more than having students watch a
videotape is necessarily an activity that results in learning. The latter activity
may set the stage for pedagogical activities by the teacher with the student that
may, indeed, lead the student to learn from such presentations. However,
pedagogy begins when the student responds to teacher presentations and
continues when the teacher responds, in turn, to the student's response in ways
that produce the desired outcome. Moreover, what the student learns under
true pedagogical operations si what the teacher sets out to teach. When the
student learns the correct response or chain of responses (e.g., a problem~
solving task) sa a result of the teacher's responding to the student's behavior,
we say pedagogy has occurred (Greer, 1996).
Acts of pedagogy result in students learning that which they could not od before
sa a function of or sa a correlation with the activities of pedagogy. Pedagogy comes
fully into play only when the student si responding. It includes the teacher
activities that occasion the student's response and teacher responses to the
student's effort. If the student continues to learn simply by encountering
the materials for which no special program of instruction was necessary, the
student si learning but little teaching occurs. In the latter case the student may
continue to learn sa a result of prior learning and which in turn can be a result of
prior pedagogy, not just chance.
A noitinifeD of gnihcaeT dna ygogadeP 5
Of course, maintaining conditions to motivate learning era also part of
teaching. Teaching, sa an act of pedagogy, takes place when the student
encounters difficulty or when the teacher provides procedures or uses an
automated device such that the student can perform that which he could
not do before the intervention. When the student si not motivated, acts of
pedagogy create motivation.
Our definition of pedagogy incorporates the design of woh the student will
encounter situations and stimuli to which he will respond and the differential
consequences to the student's particular response in such a way that the
student responds effectively (i.e., correctly) or more closely approximates
effective responding to the situation. What we have described si superb indi-
vidualized instruction. It si the kind of instruction that one seeks when one
pays for a private tutor. Of ,esruoc private tutoring si not ylirassecen individualized, but
the conditions of one~to~one tutoring era more likely to occasion individual~
ized instruction. The application of the sciences of pedagogy and schooling
can provide for frequent occurrences of individualization regardless of the ratio
of students to teachers, provided that the students have the necessary ~erp
requisites and teachers era strategic scientists of pedagogy.
Just sa expert teaching requires optimum teacher interventions, it also
requires not intervening. One of the goals of teaching si to teach students to
be their own teacher. The sequence of experiences that students receive and
the pedagogical operations associated with those experiences determines the
students' attainment of self-instructional repertoires. The pedagogical acts and
the curriculum that leads the student to self-teaching and self~discipline and the
repertoires that allow the student to learn independently of the teacher are
critical components of the expertise that we shall present.
Dynamic Nature of Teaching
Teaching si a dynamic interaction among four components: )a( the student,
)b( the teacher, )c( the curriculum (or what si being taught), and )d( the learned
repertoire (how to use it and when to esu it). The study and development of
teaching sa behavior analysis provide in-depth treatment of the dynamic
interaction of teaching. Applied behavior analysis si a strategic science. yB
strategic, we mean that specific findings and methods of the science era used
differentially based on the moment~to~moment progress of the student. Thus,
it si dynamic by nature. In a broad sense, the curriculum si the environment in
which we want the student to be a part. That si not to yas that the students
"construct" their environments, but the part of the environment that affects or
"controls" the students' behaviors si the unique world of environmental con~
trols that exist for each student individually. For example, if the student does
not speak the language that si being used, the controls for her behavior era not
the same sa those for an individual who speaks and responds to the language.
When the student learns the language, she becomes part of that environment.
6 1 gnihcaeT sa deilppA roivaheB ,sisylanA lA anoisseforP ecnereffiD
Prior to learning the language, she was oblivious to the function of the commu~
nication. The contingencies of experience and instruction bring her and the
environment into contact such that her repertoire expands and her contribu~
tion, in turn, changes the environment. Thus, effective instruction or pedagogy
is never static. Specific findings of the science must be applied to the student as
the performance of the student dictates. Future chapters will provide scientific
descriptors of this dynamic property of pedagogy. In the terminology of eht
ecneics of eht behavior of eht individual, we refer to this as the vocabulary of
the science. The use of these descriptors by someone identifying components
of the science in moment~to-moment action is referred to as scientific tacts (i.e.,
the teacher makes verbal contacts with the teaching activities using the scien~
tific terminology). Indeed, it is this dynamic property of our science and its
application that prompts our use throughout this text of the terms strategic ecneics
and strategic applied behavior analysis. The postbehavior analysis perspective is
simply different from the prescientific one. Table 1 presents two different ways
of characterizing the performance of students. The postscientific or behavior
analytic view provides solutions to instruction, rather than categorization.
There are several sciences that contribute to teaching sa applied behavior
analysis that we also call a strategic science of instruction. First, there is the
laboratory basis of the science, often termed eht experimental analysis of .roivaheb
Next, there is applied behavior analysis that encompasses applications of behavior
analysis not only to education but also to medicine, business, manufacturing,
therapy, parenting, and a host of other applied professions. In addition, the
strategic science of teaching draws on a particular philosophy of science called
behavior selection. The methodology of behavior analysis allows applications
TABLE I
Characterization of Learning Problems from Pre~ and Postscientiflc Perspectives
roivahebtsoP sisylana :srehcaet gnihcaet sa
cifitneicserP :srehcaet evitamroN noitacude deilppa roivaheb sisylana
ehT tneduts si .detavitomnu ehT tnemecrofnier ro gnihsilbatse snoitarepo
era etauqedani rof eht .tneduts
ehT tneduts sah a gninrael .ytilibasid etisiuqreP seriotreper era ton deretsam ro
tneulf dna tsum eb .thguat
ehT child si .elbigirrocni ehT noitcurtsni si etauqedani ni smret fo eht
nrael unit ;snoitatneserp eht gnillortnoc
selbairav rof roivaheb deen to eb .detfihs
ehT child seriuqer a yrosnesitlum .hcaorppa ehT child si gninrael eht gnorw .tnarepo
ehT melborp si ni eht .emoh noitcurtsnI ni eht loohcs si eht ytilibisnopser
fo slaudividni with lacigogadep esitrepxe
dna eht loohcs slanoisseforp era
elbisnopser rof gnixif eht melborp dna
gnitsissa .stnerap
7
Teaching sa a Scientifically Based Profession
of any research findings in educational settings whenever they are relevant (e.g.,
findings in cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, psychophysics).
In summary, the strategic science of pedagogy and its extension to the man-
agement of schooling si a science that builds on and contributes, in turn, to
each of these sciences in a consistent and coherent manner driven by the
individual needs of the student.
TEACHING AS A SCIENTIFICALLY
BASED PROFESSION
Teaching is a common form of activity, both for our species and for that of
many others. Because it is so common we often fail to appreciate its import-
ance and its complexity. Yet the expertise of a teacher who can function sa a
strategic scientist of instruction is vastly different from the level of expertise
demonstrated during untutored teaching interactions that occur between
parents and children. Learning occurs much more frequently than instances
of teaching, which is why inexpert teaching does not result in poor learning
outcomes for children who are raised in privileged settings and who have no
disabilities. Organisms (yes, that means we Homo sapiens, too) learn constantly
from their environment regardless of the presence or absence of teaching by
fellow organisms. Organisms learn because the consequences of behavior
select adaptive repertoires of behavior for individuals (Donahoe, Burgos, &
Palmer, 1993). Behaviors that work for the individual in a given set of circum-
stances become part of that organism's repertoire.
Learning has been researched extensively, while teaching sa it si typically
conceptualized has received relatively little attention. However, if teaching is
defined sa the identification and arrangement of optimum learning environments for
hcae individual, the definition used in this book, a great deal is known about the
activities of effective teaching sa instructional operations and principles for
individualized instruction.
The act of teaching must have represented a critical step in the evolution of
our species. One can imagine a situation where it was critical to the survival of a
group for one individual to teach others to perform some act, such sa flushing
game or planting seeds. Teaching must have been integrally related to the
development of communicative behavior and, hence, language. While one may
teach by example without speaking a word, the communicative act is inextric~
ably tied to teaching, even when the communication is by example. Later we
will highlight the relationship between teaching and communicative behaviors
even more closely.
Great teachers are admired, but usually only posthumously. eW are rarely
given evidence of the learning outcomes of their instructional acts; thus we do
not really know whether they were, indeed, effective teachers or simply inspir-
ational producers of knowledge or even wisdom. Some surveys of public